


SplatVerse

by socko



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 06:13:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19847266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/socko/pseuds/socko
Summary: After the final clash between Agent 3 and DJ Octavio, the song Calamari Inkantation continues to ring in the minds of many Octolings who bore witness, freeing them from the hive mind of the Octarians. For years after, many Octolings would try and fail to escape the underground they were banished in, with only a select few being able to pass the tests set by a mysterious telephone. All who did pass said tests would only fall victim to the telephone's traps anyways, all except one: an Octoling only known as 8. 8 brought hope to the other Octolings, allowing them to skip the tests and head straight to the escape route. This story begins a year later, when Octolings have already cemented themselves into Inkling society, becoming widely accepted but still considered foreign.





	SplatVerse

**Author's Note:**

> This story consists of characters not technically canon within the Splatoon lore, but could theoretically exist within the Splatoon universe thanks to the customization aspect the games offer. In other words, this story has “OCs,” or Original Characters. Their designs are still based on what has already been seen in the games, either prominently or briefly. However, some design aspects are creatively altered and cannot be replicated within the games, whether it be character designs or interactions. While this story is written around the lore found in the games, some details may be inconsistent as I am but one person with only a general knowledge of the main lore. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

I know it’s been about a year, but it feels like it’s _only_ been a year. The sunlight shining on my skin, my hair flowing with the wind, the birds chirping all they want, the people going about their day, it all still feels so new to me. This peacefulness was not something I thought possible, yet here we are. However, I still feel so detached from society. All the Inklings I see already have friends, hobbies, and interests. Myself, however, am still lacking in friends, don’t have any real hobbies, and am struggling to find an interest that sticks. Is that truly a way to live? 

Thinking about these things, I get out of bed and look into the mirror. If there’s one interest I could probably say I have, it’s that I prefer my hair to be curly, otherwise I’d have to straighten it out every morning. And is that truly a way to live? My already tan skin means I don’t have to go tanning at all either. I open up my closet of nothing but white collared shirts, black pants, and a few black boots. If there’s one interest I could probably say I don’t have, it’s clothing and fashion. After handpicking which clothes I should wear from my personal wide collection, I change out of my pajamas and into my clothes, put on my glasses, grab my Kensa Splattershot, then head out. Today, I’m doing something I only do so often.

After eating a meal from the Crust Bucket, I head straight into a Turf War lobby. After a little bit, I find a room that’s almost full, with myself filling up the last slot. Because of this, I don’t get a chance to look at the names, as we are taken straight to Arowana Mall. While the countdown is going down, I look over to my teammates. A tall, dark skin Inkling with his hair in a ponytail and wielding a Luna Blaster. A taller Inkling with longer hair and lighter skin, wielding an e-Liter. And, a shorter Octoling with dark skin, long hair, and wielding a .52 Gal Deco. She’s displaying a sense of nervousness. The other 2 look rather confident though. Hopefully I don’t let my team down. 

About a minute into the match, it feels like it could go either way. Those 2 intense looking Inklings on my team are covering for us really well, but I’m still playing my part well enough. Our 4th member on the other hand… well, I have no idea how she’s doing because I haven’t seen her in a while. I thought she stayed behind to cover the ground around our base. As I’m contemplating this, I fail to notice a Roller approach me and splat me. Man, I must’ve looked real stupid right then. I spawn back at base and look around to see our base barely touched at all! Where’d our 4th member go? 

While I’m inking our base, I start to hear noises from the side alleyway. The ground there is mostly inked, so I walk in while remaining cautious. No sign of the enemy, but those noises are starting to sound like mumbling. “Why did I do this? Why did I do this?” is what I’m hearing. When I approach the plant placed here, I turn to see our missing 4th member sitting and hiding behind it, mumbling to herself. When she notices my presence, she shrieks and hides her face. 

“No, wait, I’m on your team!” I try to explain.

She slightly uncovers her face and looks up to me, looking straight at my hair and then starts to calm down. “Y-yellow… ok, good…” She then returns to mumbling to herself.

“Um…” Well, this is awkward. “May I ask what it is you’re doing here?”

She slowly looks back up, then immediately looks back down without saying anything. This whole situation seems a bit… familiar. I decide to sit next to her.

“Not a fan of Turf War?” She stops mumbling and shakes her head. “Then, if you’d allow me to ask, why’d you come here?”

“W-well…” She pauses for a moment. “A friend convinced me.”

“A friend?”

“She told me I’d never get over my fears if I don’t face them.” That’s… true, but it almost sounds like she pressured her to doing it. 

“Did she now?” She nods. “Well, she’s right, but you don’t have to do Turf War if you don’t want to. It’s a side activity, not a necessity.”

“Y-yeah, but everyone popular are doing it. At least… t-that’s what she told me.”

“That’s true, but that doesn’t mean you have to.” She glances at me for a moment before staring at the ground again. 

Suddenly, announcement. “ONE MINUTE LEFT!”

Looks like the match is about to end. I decide to get up, hoping I can at least contribute somewhat this last minute. I take a good look at her to try to remember her before leaving. As I do, she looks at me as well, giving me the same surprised expression I probably have on my face too.

* * *

Short stature, dark skin, and long, black hair with light pink highlights. She doesn’t look like one of them, which would explain why she’s sitting in the corner crying. She must be scared. After all, we are in an area with one of the highest security levels, and the security here doesn’t look like they’d just let us walk away alive. I’m surprised there’s even a safe space here to cry in. 

“Um, excuse me?” She shrieks out and looks at me with complete terror in her eyes. “N-no, wait! I’m sorry, I’m not one of them!” That look really increased my heart beat, more so than before. She looks at me again, noticing I’m not wearing those Octo-Glasses and calms down a bit. She curls back up, covering her face with her knees. I… I’m struggling to find any words to say. We’re both scared for our lives, but she looks completely terrified. After looking at her, I realize that, if I had not found someone else here, I probably would have ended up like her at some point. I decide to slowly approach as to not startle her again, then sit down right next to her. It’s the least I can do, but I still can’t think of what to say.

“So, um…,” I say, hoping that by the time I finished with ‘um,’ something would have popped into my head. But, alas, my brain has failed me. 

“Did, uh, did you hear that song?” Silence. “You know, that song?” Still silence. “Well, I guess you wouldn’t have taken off your Octo-Glasses, if you hadn’t, haha…”

Normally, silence can speak a thousand words, but this silence is even silent from that. Still struggling to find a way to comfort her, she finally speaks up. “I did…”

“Y-you did?” Her voice slightly startled me. 

“...yeah.”

“Oh, well, that’s good.” Short pause. “I did too.”

Silence, once again. At least it’s a little less awkward, now that she’s a bit more comfortable.

“Um, will you be alright?” I try to ask.

“I-... I don’t know.” Her voice sounds a bit more terrified. “I’m scared…” Yeah, I get that. This whole place is scary. There are guards everywhere, with no weapons to defend ourselves. Even if we did have a weapon, these guards are ruthless. 

“You know, I’m really scared too. Scared of what might happen if I get spotted. Scared of what they might do to me if I get caught.” She flinches a bit. “But… but I want to carry on anyway.” I look directly at her. “I want to risk my life to push through, because I know there’s hope.”

“...hope?”

“Have you ever heard of 8?” She shakes her head. “They say that 8 was just another brain-washed Octoling like us. That is, until that song we heard jammed our Octo-Glasses’ and freed us. When many of us tried to escape, it was 8 who was the first successful Octoling to reach the surface.” She looks at me, giving me a chance to notice her bright pink eyes. 

“D-do you think… that we can escape too?”

“Yeah, I do. We’ve made it this far, so I know we can get out of here.”

* * *

Thinking back on that conversation, I really tried to sound cool, huh? It must’ve worked though, considering we’re here on the surface having lunch together. Probably.

“Sorry about that last game. I really set you guys back,” she apologizes.

“Oh, no, it’s alright!”

“But… our teammates got really mad at us. If I hadn’t worried you, you guys might’ve won.”

“Nah, they seem fine about it. I mean, it took a little bit of talking, but at least they got the memo.”

“But still…!”

“It’s chill, don’t worry about it.”

“...if you say so.”

We sit down at a table with our meals. Gotta love a good Seanwich.

“Say, we never shared our names,” she exclaims.

“Well, we didn’t really have names when we first met, right?”

“Yeah but that was over a year ago!”

“Right, right. Well, my name is Saxon.”

“I’m Buni!” Buni? Guess the hair on top of her head does kind of look like bunny ears. Cute! “When I looked at your orange eyes, I just knew it had to be you!”

“Oh, heh, yeah.” Wasn’t expecting her to describe my eyes. Also wasn’t expecting her to be so… energetic? I mean, both times I’ve met her so far, she was hiding in a corner. Perhaps she’s just really expressive.

We spend a little bit of time eating and talking about our reason for heading for the surface.

“I’m not really sure, to be honest,” I’m explaining. “I guess I just wanted to get out of the place.”

“Really? For me, I wanted to try new clothes.”

“New clothes?”

“We’ve always wore the same old outfits every day. Those black boots and silver armor just get boring really quickly. That was part of the reason why I wanted to get to the surface.”

I look down at her outfit. Pink, round glasses, gold earrings, a yellow sweatshirt, black sweats, and white shoes. Definitely more going on than a white shirt and black pants.

“Can I just say though, I didn’t expect your outfit to look like that!”

“My outfit?” I look down at my clothes. “I know it’s kind of basic, but I don’t really care that much about fashion or all that.”

“Hmmm…” Buni begins thinking to herself. “Okay! I have an idea!”

“An idea?”

“I don’t have a whole lot of time so this has to be quick, but we’re gonna at least add something to your outfit!” She must know more about fashion than I do. “Come on, we gotta go to the clothing shop!” She gets up and grabs my wrist.

“Okay, okay!” She drags me along over to Ye Old Cloth Shoppe.

About 15 minutes later, we finally step out of the shop. I must say, I never knew shopping for clothes could be so… intense.

“Are you sure you’re set?” Buni asks me.

“Well, I already made the purchase, so I can’t exactly back out now.”

“But a vest seems a bit…”

“I got new pants too, you know!”

“An orange vest and dark purple pants make you look like a Halloween enthusiast though!”

“Guess that’s just my style then.”

“But don’t you want to explore other styles?”

“I would, but didn’t you say you were short on time?”

“Oh shoot, you’re right! Well, I gotta go.”

“It was nice hanging with you. We should catch up more next time.”

“Yeah! You’ll see me around, I hang out here often.”

“As do I.”

She starts to run off. “See ya!”

“Bye!” We wave at each other before going our separate ways.

A week later, I’m stepping out of Grizzco Industries when I see a short, cute, yet familiar figure standing near Ammo Knights, a location I figured I would never see her anywhere near. Standing near Buni is an Inkling, who is just as short as her, with even longer hair that’s covering half her face. The two of them look like they’re talking, but as I start to approach them, they wave goodbye to each other as the Inkling steps into Ammo Knights. Buni starts to walk away until I stop her.

“Hey Buni!” I wave at her when she turns around. Her face looked a bit stressed, but she quickly turns it into a smile when turning to look at me.

“Hi, Saxon! I didn’t see you there.”

“Yeah, I was inside Grizzco for a while today. What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing. I was just talking to a friend.”

“Yeah? Did anything happen from that?”

She gives me a confused look. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I mean, you looked a bit sad when I saw you just now. Everything okay?”

“Oh, I’m not sad! But thank you for worrying.” She looks into Ammo Knights. “My friend just offered to help me with Turf War again today, is all! I declined, but I felt kind of bad about it.”

“Well, at least you’re not giving into peer pressure.”

“I wouldn’t say she’s pressuring me, but she is trying to convince me.”

“Any reason why?” I look into Ammo Knights as well and manage to spot her friend looking at weapons. “She looks like she’s dedicated to Turf War, looking for new weapons here.”

“She is! She has her own team too, so she’s really into it.” 

Her own team, huh? Hey, upon further inspection, she’s kind of cute too… Ahem, anyways.

“I don’t know why she wants me to play Turf War, though. I have other ways of making money, anyways.”

“Do you? Like what? A job?”

We turn to face each other, only for Buni to look away again. “W-well, uh, I draw art.”

“Oh, art! That sounds pretty neat. You really like drawing art?”

She turns to face me again. “Y-yeah! I have a lot of fun doing it, and I’m able to get people to buy commissions from me online.”

“Nice, nice. I’ll have to look at your work at some point.”

“You will!?” She takes out her phone, turns it on, and scrolls though her apps. She then shows me her screen, revealing to me a piece of art. It looks like… a drawing of a few Inklings and an Octoling, all enjoying each other’s company under the sunset sky. The shorter Inkling looks like Buni’s friend who is inside the weapons shop right now, while the 2 taller Inklings remind me of our 2 teammates from the game Buni and I met in. I don’t quite recognize the Octoling, however. Turning to look into Ammo Knights again, I realize that Buni’s friend was the Roller who splatted me just before I met Buni. I turn back to continue admiring Buni’s art.

“This is… this is incredible.”

“Oh, haha, thank you!” She pulls her phone back to herself and scrolls through it a little bit before showing me her screen again. Looks like her profile on SplatVerse. 

“bunbun0051.”

“Y-you don’t have to say my username out loud!”

“Oh, sorry!” She brings her phone back again as I take mine out. I turn it on, input my password, then open the SplatVerse app. I start inputting her username into the search bar. “bunbun0051.”

“You said it again!”

“Sorry, sorry! Slip of the tongue.” There she is. Her profile picture is a selfie of her, doing a really cute expression. “Look out for a ‘saxonphone,’ cause that’s me,” I say as I’m tapping the ‘follow’ button. 

Buni looks down to her phone again, tapping some things. “‘Contrary to my username, I don’t actually like saxophones.’”

“I couldn’t really think of a better username.”

“So you made a pun out of your name instead.”

“Hah, yeah…” I hear a notification from my phone, so I check. ‘bunbun0051 has followed you.’ I don’t really post anything so she didn’t really have to.

Buni puts away her phone, as do I. “I’m pretty hungry now. I’m gonna go get something to eat.”

“Oh! Mind if I join you? I can help pay.”

“That reminds me, were you just inside Grizzco?”

“Yeah, that’s where I go to make most of my money.”

“But… isn’t it really dangerous?”

“Nah, it’s all fine. The pay is decent, and I’m putting my skills into something.”

“Are you sure?”

“About the pay or the potential danger? Cause I could totally pay for lunch for the both of us.”

“No, no, about the danger!” Buni’s expression slowly changes from concern to smugness. “Although since you’re offering.” Of course.

I scratch the back of my head. “Alright, I guess I gotta pay for us both now. And there’s no need to worry. Even if something happens to me, Grizzy is always willing to lend a hand at getting us out.” The two of us start walking away from the front of Ammo Knights. “Anyways, where do you wanna go?”

“Oh, oh! I heard there was a new ice cream shop that opened up near here. Let’s go there!”

“Ooo, that sounds good! Let’s go!”


End file.
